Daniel at the Siege of Boston, 1776 by Laurie Calkhoven

Author:Laurie Calkhoven
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-09-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Wild Men and General Washington

August, 1775

The fishing boat captain rowed to shore near the road to Lynn. It was just after dawn. “Be back by four o’clock or it will be all our heads,” he warned me. His pass was for four fishermen. He could not return with less.

I set off on a slow, steady run to Cambridge. The day quickly became hot and sticky, but I dared not take off my coat for fear I’d lose it. Mother had replaced my buttons with cloth-covered coins for Father. I crossed the Mystic at a spot where the water was low and felt some relief from the heat. There was a time when I could take a swim on a hot summer day without worry. Now I had too much work to do in the tavern, or a mission to fulfill like today. I wondered if I would ever have such freedom again.

I came to Winter Hill and was suddenly ordered to halt by three men who appeared as if by witch-craft. From their clothing I took them to be Indians, but their skin was white. All three of them wore fringed deerskin shirts and had tomahawks tied to their belts.

“State your business,” one of them demanded. He eyed me from behind a musket such as I had never seen—it had a long, skinny barrel.

I raised my hands to show them I was unarmed and prayed they would not shoot. “Dan-Dan-Daniel Prescott,” I stuttered. “I’m . . . I’m going to see my father at Cambridge—a soldier.”

The men lowered their guns and after many questions gave me leave to go.

Now I was spooked by every shadow, and I jumped when a squirrel crossed my path. But I made it to Cambridge without any further assaults on my person.

The camp was much changed. It had more of a military look about it. The men’s uniforms were still a mixture of this and that, but they marched more smartly.

There were more flags about than there had been when I was here last. Many companies flew the British Union Jack. I also saw the New England pine tree flag with the motto AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN. Other banners stated what the men fought for—LIBERTY. And I spotted more than one flag with a rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike over the words DON’T TREAD ON ME.

As soon as the wind blew from the west I could tell where the necessaries were, but they were no longer scattered about higgledy-piggledy. I went to the area where Father’s company had been camped, only to find another in its place.

I asked where they were. There was such a flurry of response, each man talking over the next, that I could not make it out. Later I learned that the men were from New York, and that all New Yorkers talk loudly and all together, breaking in on you whenever they have a notion. Finally a captain from Rhode Island came to my aid with language I could understand and pointed me to Cambridge.

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